Email this article to a friend

Holland's Rabobank has raised its stake in Polish bank BGZ to 59% ahead of its flotation on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which has a strong pipeline of initial public offerings due to a high demand for equities from domestic pension funds.

The other major holder in BGZ is the Polish Treasury Ministry, which plans to sell its 37.29% stake when the company floats in Warsaw in the third quarter of this year.

There are a number of companies from Poland scheduled to list stock in Warsaw this year.

The first to test market sentiment will be television operator Cyfrowy Polsat, which has set a share price range of 10.80 to 13.80 zlotys for its offering and could raise as much as $480m (€301m).

The final price will be announced on April 25 and the market debut is scheduled for May 6. The deal is being managed by UBS, Unicredit CAIB and local broker DM Penetrator.

Czech miner New World Resources has also said it wants to raise as much as £1.1bn ($2.2bn) in an initial share sale in London, Prague and Warsaw. It plans to use the money raised to expand in Poland , including plans to open a new hard coal mine.

Josef Nemy, an analyst at Komercni Banka, the Czech unit of Société Générale, said: "One of the main reasons why NWR plans to list in Warsaw is the high domestic demand for initial public offerings by Polish pension funds."

Related

These funds can only invest 5% in foreign assets but they can have equity holdings of up to 40%.

NWR today announced a share price range for its offering of between £10.75 and £13.25 per share. Final pricing is expected to be announced on or before May 7 with trading expected in London the following day, in Prague on May 9 and in Warsaw on May 14.

There are also two large energy flotations on the Warsaw exchange in the pipeline. UniCredit and Goldman Sachs have been appointed joint bookrunners on the €1bn ($1.5bn) flotation of Polish energy company PGE.

Meanwhile, Polish state-owned utility Enea also said today that it aims to raise up to $1.4bn when it lists this year. Credit Suisse is the company's adivser on the deal.